Gustave Courbet

Possibly Bernheim-Jeune
Emile Chambon, Geneva (before 1949)
P. Berne Collection (in May 1949, according to a label on the reverse)
Sale: Auktion Jürig Stuker, November 17-26, 1953 (according to a label on the reverse)
Galerie S. Benatov (by 1956)
Property of a Foundation (and sold: Christie's, London, November 21, 1997, lot 182, illustrated)

Ornans, Musée Gustave Courbet, Hommage au paysage comtois peint par Gustave Courbet, June-September 1979, no. 2
Ornans, Musée Gustave Courbet, Courbet, l'amour..., 15 -October 28, 1996, no. 12

Welkunst, Munich, November 1953, no. 21, illustrated
Robert Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, Lausanne and Paris, 1978, vol. I, p. 18, no. 32, illustrated
Pierre Courthion, L'opera completa di Courbet, Milan, 1985, no. 31

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is painted on a single piece of wood with the wood grain running vertically. There are two restored cracks in the wood, one in the upper left and another in the center running through the neck of the figure, yet very few in the face itself. The paint layer has been cleaned, retouched and varnished. There are retouches which are clearly visible under ultraviolet light and seem to be accurate, well matched, and economically placed. A few of the profiles of the leaves against the sky have been strengthened to the crack in the upper left. This important picture has had a few restorations but is extremely presentable and should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Painted circa 1842-44.

As a young artist Courbet spent most of the 1840s in Paris, making occasional trips to visit his family in Ornans.  It is difficult to say, without any recognizable landmarks, if the location of La Sieste is a hillside in Ornans or the countryside outside of Paris.  The scene - in both subject and setting - resembles other paintings from the early 1840s (RF 21, 24 and 34).  In the present painting, we see a voluptuous, young peasant girl, a precursor to a female type that would appear often in Courbet's later works.  She naps under the shade of a tree, the heat of the sun obvious as it shines down on the golden wheat fields with its harvesters.  Courbet later would develop the theme of slumber and sleep, culminating in his controversial painting, The Sleepers of 1866 (RF  532).